Hi, my name is Sophia Galvin and I am undergoing research for my major work the Society and Culture Personal Interest Project. I attend Killara High School and my chosen topic for the Personal Interest Project is “The Affects of the Rising Petrol Prices”. As I am sure the rising petrol prices affect nearly all individuals in society, I would immensely appreciate it if you could share your experiences by filling out this questionnaire. The questionnaire will remain completely anonymous and any other information you would like to share can be delivered to my email address rocksophie@hotmail.com. Your time and effort is very much appreciated, thank you.

1. Do your have your own car?



2. How many cars to your own?

.

3. What type of car/s do you own?

4. Do you pay for your own petrol?

5. How much petrol do you spend per week on each car?

6. How much this has changed over the past 6 months?

7. Have you begun to fill up the tank less regularly?


8. How have you changed your routine to compensate for these changes?

9. Are you up to date with the petrol issue?

10. Do your use guides and information to assist you in dealing with rising petrol
prices?

11. What do you think will happen in the future?


12. Any other information on the changes occurring and how you are dealing with it;

Thank you very much, Sophia Galvin
rocksophie@hotmail.com

Hello Sophie

1. Yes

2. 1

3. Nissan Xtrail

4. Yup

5. I don’t wanna think about it. I just spend what I need to. I’m not one for keeping close tabs on expenditure. Not yet anyway.

6. All else being equal, it has changed a lot. The cost that is. The amount of car usage hasn’t changed.

7. No.

8. My everyday lifestyle hasn’t changed. But I have delayed and probably cancelled my planned trip from North Queensland to the Kimberleys this winter directly due to rising fuel prices.

9. Yes indeed. I’ve been involved with debates about peak oil, the energy crunch, effects of rising fuel prices on our economy, quality of life and society, and all manner of related issues for a long time.

10. I am constantly listening to the news and keeping up with discussions and information on all of this.

11. Baaaaad things! I fear that we will not be able to find substitutes for oil that can be brought on line in time or at prices that will stop massive economic hardship, inflation, unemployment and a serious fracturing of our society.

12. It is absolutely criminal in Australia for our government to have actually increased the already absurdly high growth rate in the number of consumers of oil…and all other resources… (via increases in immigration and the baby bonus payment) while at the same time espousing a massive reduction in fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. I think that the peak oil / energy crunch issue is of the utmost importance...far more so than climate change.

Sophie, I'm a little different to average, as I live in the near country, 25Km from an outer city suburb, & 25Km from 3 different country towns, each large enough to have a supermarket.

1; Yes

2; Two.

3; Triumph TR7, 1980 2 seater sports. My main car, which I built out of 2 wrecks. Easy to maintain, & cheep to run, using 7.8L/100Km, & I rarely require more than 2 seats.

Toyota Cressida, 1985. Ex family car, with 400,000Km on it, now used for dirty work, towing trailers, trips to tip etc.

4; Yes.

5: Triumph about $19 average per week.
Toyota, about $10 per week.

7; The volume has not changed, the price, of course, has increased 55%.

8; Not really. I have only one local service station, & its not worth a 50 or 60Km round trip for the discount offered in the city.

9; Yes.

10; Not much use to me, see No 8.

11; I expect that there will be at least a minor crash in petrol prices, in the next 18 months or so. Prices will then rise at a slower rate. I believe stories of "peak" oil are grossly exaggerated.

12; Unlike Ludwig, I am more likely to do a couple of long trips, in the near future, while I can still manage to afford it, just in case I can't later

Hello Sophie,
Interesting project.

1. Do your have your own car? Yes
2. How many cars to your own? One
3. What type of car/s do you own? 1999 Volvo
4. Do you pay for your own petrol? Yes
5. How much petrol do you spend per week on each car? approx $30
6. How much this has changed over the past 6 months? less by approx $5
7. Have you begun to fill up the tank less regularly? yes
8. How have you changed your routine to compensate for these changes?
No, I make more effort to combine tasks into one trip.
9. Are you up to date with the petrol issue? Yes
10. Do your use guides and information to assist you in dealing with rising petrol prices? No
11. What do you think will happen in the future? Petrol rationing.
12. Any other information on the changes occurring and how you are dealing with it;
Peak oil appears to be just coming over our horizon. Prices will
continue rising until shortages start appearing. There is no way back
to low prices.

Hi Sophie,

1. Do your have your own car? Yes
2. How many cars do you own? Two
3. What type of car/s do you own? 1999 Jeep Cherokee and 2000 Toyota Corolla
4. Do you pay for your own petrol? Yes
5. How much petrol do you spend per week on each car? Jeep: $50 Corolla $50
6. How much has this changed over the past 6 months? decreased by about $50 - 80 by changing vehicle usage
7. Have you begun to fill up the tank less regularly? Yes
8. How have you changed your routine to compensate for these changes?
Yes, my wife and I have swapped cars and use more public transport. I also aim to fill up on Tuesdays.
9. Are you up to date with the petrol issue? I believe so
10. Do you use guides and information to assist you in dealing with rising petrol prices? No
11. What do you think will happen in the future? Petrol use (crude oil) will become an enormous factor on many aspects of life - including agricultural production, tourism, packaging, manufacturing and transport. The demand for fuel is increasingly an issue - with China and India rapidly growing their consumption requirements. Alternative energies will gradually become more affordable and research into these areas has already begun.
12. Any other information on the changes occurring and how you are dealing with it;
- The agricultural industry is being severely pinched by fuel prices, not only in relation to the transport costs, but other related (and non related) input costs that have suddenly sky rocketed. This combined with increasing demands has put an enormous strain on our rural community.
- Carbon trading schemes and carbon emissions need to be considered.
- Water is also closely linked to fuel ... especially during the extraction process

1. Do your have your own car? Yes.

2. How many cars? 2.

3. What type of cars? 4 cylinder Toyota & Mazda.

4. Do you pay for your own petrol? some of it, not all.

5. How much do you spend on petrol? $30 per car.

6. How much this has changed over the past 6 months? it has gone down.

7. Have you begun to fill up the tank less regularly? yes.

8. How have you changed your routine to compensate for these changes? my routine has changed but it wasn't because of fuel prices.

9. Are you up to date with the petrol issue? I try to be.

10. Do your use guides and information to assist you in dealing with rising petrol prices? no.

11. What do you think will happen in the future? The rate we can extract petroleum from the wells will start dropping within 3-5 years. When that happens if alternatives haven't been developed the price will spiral out of control, which would very, very unpleasant. So we have to do something, but while 3-5 years may sound long, it isn't really. A car's average lifetime is at least 12 years. That means if we started selling nothing but electric cars right now, over 1/2 the cars would be still be using petrol in 5 years. Nor can we re-tool all of our oil dependent industries to no something else in 5 years. Therefore, we have no choice but to continue using hydrocarbons like petrol. We can manufacture petrol from coal or other carbon sources for less than petrol costs now. The downside is it doubles the amount greenhouse gas produced per litre of petrol used. So, despite whatever intentions our governments espouse now, greenhouse gases are going to leap up rather than go down over the next few decades. So what will happen in the future? Your generation will find out if the worst predictions of the climate scientists are right, I guess.

12. Any other information on the changes occurring and how you are dealing with it; none.

Judy Spence,

I've seen a few your posts around now. It seems you have decided that nuclear is a limitless source of energy and we can put to all sorts of uses, such as driving our cars using hydrogen and desalination. If used to produce all our electricity needs the world has an estimated 40 years worth of Uranium, using existing mining techniques. That is not by any measure "limitless".

Its possible we will figure how to commercially extract Uranium from other sources like seawater in the future, and its possible breeder reactors may one day become workable. But then is possible carbon sequestration might be made to work, its possible solar will become more cost effective and its possible we will find a good way to store energy thus making heavy use of renewables feasible.

Who knows what the future holds, eh? The one thing I can say with some confidence is that hydrogen cars won't be part of it. Hydrogen dammed difficult to store. In fluid form it requires huge amounts of energy to compress and literally forces itself through the pores of metal containers so you loose 3% of it a day. In metal hydrate form it has 1/3 to 1/4 the energy of density petrol (meaning you need containers 3..4 times the size and weight) and hydrates can explode when exposed to moist air. The only way to use hydrogen efficiently enough to make it practical convert it to electricity using a fuel cell. The only working fuel cells we have today use a platinum catalyst, but there isn't enough platinum on the planet to make fuel cells for the cars we have on the road now.

In the next 3 or so electoral terms Judy we are going need some very level heads to guide us through Peak Oil. You are going to be feed all sorts of crap from companies trying to take advantage of the sense of panic it will create. Find some engineers or academics you can rely on to give you frank and fearless advice, and listen to them.

Hi Sophie,
Great project and very good questions for your survey.
1. yes
2. 3 vehicles
3. my everyday car is a 1981 Mazda 323 and I have 2 trucks which are used for my business.
4. yes
5.The mazda is very frugal and I don't do much driving in it anyway, so it uses about $30 or so a week. One of the trucks is petrol and used for local deliveries, averaging about 1000km a week at around 13l/100km. the other is diesel and has a crane on. It uses about $200-$400/week, depending on work load.
6. Heaps! Not sure exactly, but I'd guestimate about a 40-50% increase in fuel costs over the past 6 months.
7. No, as it's mainly determined by need, not discretion.
8. I can't do much in that regard.
9.I think so
10.no
11. I expect that fossil fuels will become untenably expensive for personal transport.
12. We have started work on building a producer-gas gasifier with a view to possibly running the small truck on it, as well as a generator to provide power for the business.

rstuart,
Another thing about hydrogen cars, because of the gas leakage you
can't park them in enclosed or underground car parks.
The gas would accumulate up amongst the fluorescent lights, hmmm

thanks to everyone who has been filling out the questionnaire, its a great help !